I woke early this morning about 6am to sunshine and exotic birds. At about 8:00 I went into Thys’s office with Swazi and he asked me what my expectations/interests were for the internship. After the meeting, Reinhardt gave me a tour of the Pietermaritzburg YMCA premises. Everything is run down, but there is a soccer field with long grass (it is not used very often anymore), a volleyball court also not used often, a sports arena, a few cottages for residency, a dorm-like residency building, and an outdoor area where the Y-zone program takes place. Right now there is not much structure with the Y-zone program – it is more of a safe place for kids to hang out after school. However, Fridays are the big days for the Y-zone program because huge groups of kids will come here to crump (a dancing style used to outwardly express themselves). Crumping is extremely popular here. I am so excited to experience this! The Youth Justice program is every Tuesday and Thursday and it consists of feeding the children that show up and they can also wash themselves in the sports center, which has showers. The tour continued and there is a very muddy river just on the other side of the Y. Thys reiterated that I must never go out alone and though they did not intend to scare me, there was a recent case of rape of one of their residents here. I met Mr. Frank - a security guard that works at the front desk, Swazi – youth director and my “mom” for the duration of my stay, Rita – a fiery-spirited cleaning/laundry lady who greeted me with my first experience of a Zulu handshake, Fish – a security guard my age, and Brent – another worker in the office. There is a serious lack of funding, lack of volunteering, and it is an extremely challenging task to market to such a difficult-to-reach group (the Y-zone program usually only attracts 20 or so kids, except for crumping Fridays) and such a broad range of needs.
After the tour Reinhardt and I were not to go back into the office for a few hours because of a meeting between Thys, Swazi, and Brent (we were to join them later). So, Reinhardt and I hung out in the courtyard for a while. After a few hours we decided to walk to the grocery store about a half mile away to get the things that I needed. My shoulders got a little burned along the way which Reinhardt found amusing, but he said that if I got a nice tan I would look just like a South African. We bolted across the street dodging cars (it is a-typical for a South African to use a crosswalk), walked through some residential areas, and came to a mall with Checkers (the grocery store) in it. As Reinhardt had mentioned before, he explained that South Africans LOVE meat and that was evident as I walked through the four or five different meat sections in Checkers. I bought a hunk of chicken lunch meat that tastes like bologna along with some Gouda, bread, fruit, pasta, and cereal. Reinhardt bought some fried calamari (a treat he enjoys about once every six months) and I tried a bite of it. It actually wasn’t too bad - it tasted like chicken. I also learned that the Pietermaritzburg/Durban area is the home to the biggest Indian population outside of India, which explained all of the curry in the grocery store.
When we got back, Reinhardt said he would take a break so I went to my room for lunch. Not long after he came into my room declaring he was bored and we talked for another hour or so. He asked if he could show me the nightlife. Brent and Swazi stated they would like to show me nightlife as well, so I’m sure my weekends will be full of activity. At about 14:00 we joined Swazi, Thys, and Brent in their meeting. The meeting was extraordinarily different than meetings I have attended in the US. My duties for the month were addressed which are: contact YMCAs in the US to see if they are interested in sending their old Y-logo shirts here, painting/fixing up a building so that it can be used for programming, and working with Reinhardt on Y-Zone and Youth Justice programming.
Around 17:00 I came back to my room to use a little internet and since I left the door open, Mr. Frank stopped by and took a look at my place. He was thoroughly impressed by pretty much all of my belongings including my bags and my CSB water bottle. I have some WetWipes sitting out on my table and apparently he had never seen anything like it before. I explained that using one was kind of like washing your hands and that no water was needed. He was astonished by such a thing, so I offered him one and he used it gladly, proclaiming that he was ready to eat.
I made myself another sandwich for dinner. I am trying to stay awake as long as possible so that I can adjust to the time difference but since there is not much else to do in the evenings except read, it is extra tough to do so.
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